[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[40800]
No. 1.
382
[December 4.]
SECTION 1.
45640
Sir R. Hart to Sir Cecil Clementi-Smith.--(Communicated to Foreign Office, December 4, 1900.)
Peking, October 21, 1906.
Dear Sir Cecil,
YOURS of the 5th September arrived a few days ago. That Customs Edict has been much discussed, and, of course, it in itself is, and means, change. It gives the new Directors-General full authority, and they themselves will interpret that authority's limits; but in doing so they will find that the liberty to do so is already circumscribed by various conditions and circumstances which cannot be ignored. We were certainly easier in mind before the Edict appeared, but it is difficult to prophesy how it will operate, and when it will begin to pinch; we shall probably have to wait for experience to furnish enlightenment on both points.
The Inspectorate has never been forced on China, and it has now existed some fifty years by China's own wish. In 1854 the native authorities fled when the Triads took and held Shanghai, and then British, French, and American Treaty Power Consuls established a triumvirate of Inspectors to collect the duties due to China, and grant such customs clearances as would authorize Consuls to restore ships' papers and allow them to depart. The following year the city was retaken and official authority re-established, and the Inspectors were found to have done such good work—regulating procedure and increasing collection—that they were invited to retain their positions, and when the Tien-tsin Treaties stipulated for a uniform system at all open ports in 1858, it was the extension of the Shanghai system that was adopted. Later, again, when the Tien-tsin indemnities were paid off in 1865-66, there appeared a special Decree continuing the system, so well had it worked, and so profitably. From that date down to 1906, no alteration was made, and as new ports were, time after time, opened, the Inspectorate planted its offices at them, and, in addition, attended to many other kinds of business that occasion demanded or made opening for. During all this long period it was within the power of China to change, interfere, or undo, but instead of this occurring, the Service was strengthened in every respect, and the authority of the Inspector-General increased.
I joined at Canton in 1859, and when the first Inspector-General, Mr. H. N. Lay, went home on leave in 1861, returning in 1863, the work was carried on by me, and on his fall in 1863 I was made Inspector-General in his place, and have held the appointment ever since. Thus it came to pass that my way of working grew with the extension of the Inspectorate, and, invisibly, independence and power accompanied that growth, so that I had, in the end, a position which could not have been expected, and would not have been conceded, at the beginning. But through all this I was, from first to last, the subordinate of the Tsung-Ji Yamên and Wai-wu Pu, and I might at any moment have been made to feel that they could control me; and when the new office, the Shui-wu Ch'u, appeared this year, the transfer of the Inspectorate to it was a simple transfer of already and long-existing control, and, if a new departure, not a new creation.
We do not yet know who was the prime mover, or what was the ruling motive in the establishment of the Ch'u, but my age, and my approaching departure, probably made a way and opening for it, and a natural desire to make it look more like a native than a foreign department, together with a growing necessity for finding employment for an increasing number of fairly qualified and better equipped students, had also probably much to do with a much-to-be-expected development in this "China for the Chinese" age. We have now worked some four or five months under the Ch'u, and, except that the fight made for us by foreign friends has somewhat incensed our native chiefs, and that hypothetical fears may have sown the seeds of what may some day spring up as actual developments, no special change has shown itself of a kind to threaten, inconvenience, or derange the Service. The new Directors-General simply told me I was to carry on as before, and I have been doing so.
Some think I ought to have protested, resisted, or resigned, but I did not see my way to criticise an Edict or oppose official orders given in accordance with it, nor did I consider, what certainly seemed a critical juncture, the right moment for deserting...
(2263 d---1)